About Me

I am a 42 year old woman that is about as happy and content as one person can be. My husband of 21 years and our 15 year old daughter live on five and a half acres out in the country. We moved from the city four years ago and never looked back. I homeschool our daughter. We also love our animals. Our daughter has a miniature horse and two rabbits. We also have a border collie, two cats (again), two pot belly pigs, four peafowl, three emus, 2 llamas and an undetermined number of chickens, lets just say ohhh about 200. I have many breeds, from layers to fancy chickens. I love poultry shows, I love fowl in general as I have come to find out through having more than just chickens. Chickens will always be my first love though. I do show some of my birds occasionally.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

The Next Chicken To Arrive-Another Chicken Hobby Entry

Lets move on this morning with another entry on my growing flock.

The same man that gave me the Japanese Silver Phoenix was given what he was told was Aracauna chicks. They were too young to tell the sex of them, but he didnt want them and thought I might like to have them. These days I am a bit more selective about what I get, simply because I only have so much room and so much time, and so much money. At the time I didnt have that many birds, so I took them. There were five. Four out of five ended up being boys. :( That was disappointing. It is hard to keep so many boys together...they don't get along like girls do. Is that really surprising though? ;)

We named each of them...there was Alan, Martina, Tiny, Rebus (was named Reba, until we found she was in fact a HE), and Toby. Toby didn't make it very far in life. He didnt seem to fit in with the little flock. He knew it too, would flee at the least little sign there was going to be trouble. I think this was in fact what caused his death. I found him in the pen dead from what I believe was a broken neck. I believe he was freaking out and slammed into the wire and broke his neck and died. So Toby was gone. I thought Martina and Alan would make a good pair to breed so I placed them in a breeding pen. She never...ever laid not one single egg. She passed away for unknown reasons later on. Sometimes that happens. They just die. One day they are fine, next day you find them dead. I hate when that happens, no warning, just one gone chicken.

Tiny and Rebus were sentenced to chicken prison together as prison mates...they were too rough on my girls so they were destined for a life of solitude. Young roosters can be overzealous about mating. Alan was without a mate...so he was kept in a pen alone for a long time. He had become quite aggressive. He was a formidable rooster to boot. He was quite large and could probably hurt you if he tried.

Much later I ended up selling Rebus to a man that wanted a rooster for his hens. So hopefully Rebus was going to a roosters paradise with plenty of lovely ladies.

I am now left with Tiny, and he is just a sweetie...he gets along with everyone. He is allowed to roam free.

Alan is still with us. He is the one you may remember I almost sold off to a hispanic man for food. I was never able to harness Alans aggression so he is forever in chicken prison. I dont feel comfortable selling him as he may go to a home where he could hurt someone. Shelby wont let me sell him for dinner meat, we have gone over that, she made me feel pretty bad about all that. So he will live out his life here I guess. I really tried to tame him down, but it just never worked. I have dealt with aggressive roosters and have made them settle down and accept me out in the yard with them. Alan just wont relent. So there he sits.

I have here pictures of them very young, and then later pictures of them grown. Hope you enjoy them. :)

Alan and Martina...

Alan...

Toby....and you can see Tiny peeking out back there...

Rebus up front and Tiny sitting there in the back...

Later pictures...Toby on the right, Tiny to the left, and Rebus in the back...

Tiny...still our favorite...still here today...sweet as ever. I have a recent picture of him somewhere in my files...I will see if I can find it and if I can I will add it later....

Too many roosters always turns out badly. Some are just aggressive by nature I think. We had a big gold rooster back several years ago that was in "love" with Bug. Every time he'd see her out, he'd make a bee line dash and hop on her back/shoulders. She was bout 2 1/2 or 3. He'd start pecking her like they do when they want to breed!! Never harmed her, but scared her silly. Suppose with that beautiful strawberry blond hair he thought she was a beautiful hen, just his color. We finally had to give him away so she could have peace in her own yard. - Barbara

I want some chics but we can't have them in the subdivision, even though we're so close to Sugar Valley Road where there is lots of pasture. Husband wouldn't like it and neither would the neighbors. I am forced to live vicariously through you regarding raising chickens. lol

HI KELLY, I GREW UP IN THE COUNTRY MOSTLY AND OF COURSE WE HAD CHICKENS. I ENJOY READING THE ACCOUNTS OF YOUR CHICKENS. ONE OF MY DAUGHTERS THAT WAS MARRIED SOON OUT OF COLLEGE HAD MARRIED A FELLOW THAT ALSO KNEW NOTHING OF CHICKENS AND AGREED THEY WOULD HAVE A FLOCK OF CHICKENS IF SHE WOULD BE THE ONE TO ACQUIRE THEM, HAVING PLENTY OF ROOM ON THE COUNTRY HOME THEY HAD BOUGHT. THE DAUGHTER KEPT ME INFORMED OF BUYING THE CHICKENS. SHE WAS SO PROUD THAT SHE HAD BOUGHT 25 HENS AND WAS ENJOYING ALL THE EGGS THEY COULD USE AND MORE. HOWEVER, SHE WAS DISAPPOINTED THAT SHE HAD ONLY GOTTEN 16 ROOSTERS SO FAR. sam